What is GrabPay authorisation & hold?

As we continue to scale GrabPay across the region, we have also introduced a feature called “authorisation & hold“. We’ve done this to ensure the security of your payments within GrabPay.

A payment authorisation “holds” the full value of the ride booked. This appears as a “pending” transaction in your statement, but the funds do remain in your account. The amount held is based on the fare, in addition to expected tolls & fees.

In certain situations, Grab may cancel the original authorisation and process a new hold charge. In this scenario, you may see two charges appear on your bank statement: one, which was the original hold, and one, which is the fare paid to Grab. Depending on your bank’s processing time, the hold charge may take up to 30 days to release.

Q: When are the “captured” funds released?

A: Once the trip gets completed and the fare amount is charged, Grab will immediately releases the hold for any extra amount charged. However, banks have different policies for authorisation timeframes. Depending on the bank’s processing time, this may take up to 30 days to be released back into your account.

Q: What if my booking is canceled, or unallocated?

A: Any authorisation that is not used will be cancelled and the funds released to your account. Again, depending on the bank’s processing time, this may take up to 30 days to be released back into your account.